Naruto, suddenly restrained from behind, was panicked and confused, but after discovering the person covering his mouth was Sakura, he stopped struggling and calmed down.
“Calmed down now?”
Sakura asked.
Unable to speak, Naruto nodded instead of answering.
The next moment, Naruto regained his freedom of speech.
He asked curiously, “Sakura, why are you here?”
It wasn’t just Naruto who had this doubt, but also Sasuke.
But unlike Naruto’s direct questioning, Sasuke only gave Sakura a faint glance.
“You guys seem to be talking about me. What are you talking about?”
Sakura didn’t answer Naruto; instead, she threw out her own question to seize control of the conversation.
Hearing Sakura’s question, Sasuke looked away, indicating by his actions that he hadn’t been discussing her at all.
Proud as he was, he naturally disdained to explain that he was merely caught in the crossfire of Naruto’s unreasonable pestering.
“Sakura, Sakura! Listen to me, this guy Sasuke actually trampled on your feelings!”
Following Sakura’s inquiry, Naruto exposed Sasuke’s ‘evil deeds’ in front of Sakura herself, like he was filing a complaint.
It was clear who had actively pulled Sakura into the ‘battlefield’ during the argument.
“Don’t use such misleading rhetoric…”
Sakura felt helpless, but fortunately, judging by the reactions of others, the reason for the argument between Naruto and Sasuke was likely different from what she thought.
But it was impossible to expect Naruto to reconstruct the ‘real’ scene; she scanned her surroundings and found the best candidate for ‘testimony’.
Shino, wearing sunglasses and wrapped up tightly, sat right next to Naruto and Sasuke.
“Shino, did you hear the entire process of their argument?”
While waiting for Shino’s reply, Sakura pushed away Naruto, who had started pestering her and complaining, “Sakura, why didn’t you just ask me?” to prevent him from mixing false info with the truth.
Information!
It is the manifestation of a Ninja’s vitality!
In the current class, besides Sakura, only Shino understood this truth!
He was an information expert who, at a young age, had begun collecting Aburame Torune’s special Nano-sized venomous insects and researched ways to counter them.
Moreover, a man of few words like Shino wouldn’t exaggerate things when sharing information, unlike Naruto. Find the original chapter at g.com.
“I heard everything.”
Shino replied slowly to Sakura.
But as soon as he spoke, Inuzuka Kiba chimed in to stir the pot: “What’s there to know? Sakura, it’s not like you don’t know Naruto’s always picking fights with Sasuke—might as well let them have a fight. I think Naruto will lose miserably. What do you think, Akamaru?”
“What did you say! How could I lose to a guy like Sasuke!”
It was just a small provocation, but Naruto took the bait immediately.
The argument that had stopped because of Sakura’s appearance was on the verge of reigniting.
“…Naruto, you should just give up on being Hokage. When I become Hokage, if you beg me, I might be merciful enough to let you touch the Hokage Cloak!”
“I should be saying that to you, but even if you beg me, I won’t let you touch it!”
Somehow, the argument between the two suddenly turned into who was more likely to become Hokage.
The annoying argument put Sakura right in the middle, forced to hear Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba’s bickering, and it also made the noise-hating Shino shut his mouth again.
“The situation seems to have worsened. Shikamaru, do you want to help now?”
Akimichi Choji, watching from nearby, swallowed his last potato chip; Choji could feel Sakura’s headache just by looking at her.
He looked at Nara Shikamaru, who was usually lazy but always had various solutions.
Nara Shikamaru just shook his head and said something Choji found mysterious: “Naruto and Kiba… they’re finished.”
Nara Shikamaru noticed the silent expression on Sakura’s face; it was the same expression he saw every morning on his mother’s face when she scolded his father.
At times like this, boys can’t win against girls.
Sure enough, an unexpected event occurred in the argument between Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba.
They both suddenly felt the world spinning, and when they hit solid ground again, Iruka’s voice reached their ears.
“Naruto, Kiba, why did you two suddenly rush out?”
Facing Iruka’s confusion, Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba just looked at each other, not knowing how they had left the line.
“Iruka-sensei, Naruto and Kiba are very dissatisfied with the previous match results; they strongly request a rematch!”
Sakura shouted at Iruka from within the boys’ line.
Iruka was even more confused about Sakura’s involvement.
Were Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba thrown out by Sakura?
Although Sakura’s physical test score was only at the passing line, this was a school for training Ninjas; the power contained in her body was far beyond what normal people could compare to, more than enough to toss Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba out.
Doubts piled up in Iruka’s mind, but based on his duty as an educator, he prioritized answering the topic related to the course content:
“The result of the match is final; it cannot be changed just by one’s dissatisfaction. If you’re truly unhappy, work harder to train yourselves! Don’t just try to void the original results!”
“That’s not it, Iruka-sensei.”
Sakura continued to explain: “They don’t have any intention of negating the previous results, they just want an extra match—as an educator, facing students with such high learning enthusiasm—Iruka-sensei, you wouldn’t pour cold water on their passion, right? I’m sure you wouldn’t! Dampening students’ enthusiasm is not what an educator should do!”
Hearing the resentment and threat in Sakura’s words, Iruka was speechless.
He had a hunch that if he refused the proposal for an extra match, Sakura really would spread rumors about his ‘educational failure’ throughout the entire Ninja Academy.
He didn’t expect the retaliation for his arrangement of making Sakura spar with Sasuke to come so quickly!
“Then after everyone else finishes, we’ll give them an extra match.”
Iruka chose to compromise.
But that wasn’t the result Sakura wanted.
“Iruka-sensei, they rushed out of the line with such high spirits, they’re eager for the next match right now.”
“…”
“Fine, Naruto and Kiba, you two will cut in for your extra match after Hinata and Ino finish their sparring.”
Iruka was truly an excellent educator.
This way, Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba wouldn’t be able to return to the line for a while.
Having achieved her goal, a satisfied smile appeared on Sakura’s face.
“Ino, Hinata! Good luck, both of you!”
She cheered for Ino and Hinata, whose match had been interrupted.
Then she enjoyed the quiet around her for a while, free from the chatter of Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba.
“Now, let’s continue!”
Sakura signaled Shino to continue their interrupted conversation.